1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a thin-film magnetic head having a head face for cooperation with an information carrier, which thin-film magnetic head comprises a magnetic yoke having a first and a second flux conductor contiguous to the head face and a magneto-resistance element remote from the head face, a first edge portion of which is closer to the head face than a second edge portion and has an axis of easy magnetization extending parallel to the head face and which magneto-resistance element extends in a direction perpendicular to the head face, the first flux conductor extending at least to the second edge portion and the second flux conductor extending to at least roughly the first edge portion and the thin-film magnetic head comprising a further magneto-resistance element having an axis of easy magnetization extending parallel to the head face.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic head of the type referred to above is a yoke magneto-resistance head and is extremely suitable for reading long-wave signals of analog information from a track of a magnetic information carrier. In addition to the magnetic head defined in the opening paragraph, shielded magneto-resistance heads are also known, wherein a magneto-resistance element is located at the head face between two flux conductors. Such a magnetic head is extremely suitable for reading short-wave signals representing digital information from a track of a magnetic information carrier.
The thin-film magnetic head defined in the opening paragraph is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,048. This known magnetic head comprises a shielded magneto-resistance head in addition to a yoke magneto-resistance element.
This known magnetic head has the disadvantage that it must be provided with two transducing gaps to be able to read both short-wave and long-wave signals from tracks of a magnetic information carrier.